Made a huge mistake of shill bidding. Need help.

[Justme23]

How do I do a mutual cancellation? I also, have an invoice due for this item fees, but I am willing to pay it to learn from this mistake. And also, would'nt I get caught if I try this, since I'm the seller, trying to dispute against my shill bidding account? I thought ebay would trace ip's and find out.

[Justme23]

I'm just so stressed out, really. I dont want ebay to come back and cancel mess up and limit my paypal account.

I just really want to know whats the best route to take. If someone can break it down in laymens terms. I'm willing to pay the seller fees for doing this bidding.

If you mark it paid, you will be hit with FVFs. If you flag it NPB again, you'll draw attention. I don't see a good choice for you, either way. If you relist it, you'll pay the fees from before AND fees to list again.

From my point of view: If you flubbed it the first time and it didn't sell the second time - the item is a poor choice for selling or you are doing something very wrong. Either way, if it were me having that issue, I'd forget about handling it in the future. I would also keep it for personal use, give it as a gift to somebody I don't really like very much, or donate it to a charity. My bottom line: No Profit, No Touchie.

[Justme23]

How about this, what if I mark it as payment sent on the buyer side, and paid on the seller, and just pay the FVFs? Is that a good route? My only concern is that the buyer account isnt tied to any paypal accounts or nothing, but my seller account is, so I is ebay going to try to find out if my shill bidding account really paid or not on my seller or bidder side.

You might get away with that. But what would you use for the shipping address? The shill account had better not be using the same or even a similar address to the seller account.

Seriously, quit sweating about this. Drop it, eat the loss, and move on. Before you stab yourself in the eye.

Matter of fact, at this point, you should probably just ditch both accounts and never look back. Start over fresh.

[Justme23]

I actually used a friends address 20 miles away on the shill bid account. So if I do this, and cancel both accounts later, what about for filing taxes and using any items I bought as a proof of purchase for warranty purposes on there? I made about $600 with ebay so far, so is there anything in particular I need to do before I cancel? I'm thankful for all the help, I was really buggin out over this.

Considering the address factor is covered, you're good in that regard. But if you will be cancelling the accounts, why bother resolving it? Just turn your back and walk away. Let them mop up the mess.

As for filing taxes... Will you be claiming the expense of doing business against taxes, whereby you must claim the income?

For warranty coverage of prior purchases, I am absolutely certain that you don't have to keep the account active. The warranty will remain valid. Make sure you print out any receipts that you may have neglected, before you ditch though.

[Justme23]

I might want to make a new legit account in the future, that why I want to resolve it.

For the taxes, I just was an individual selling items, but not a business. I just thought I had to report any activity to the irs.

And does ebay send you a tax form or something at the end of the year or how can they report the activity without a ssn?

[GreenBean]

Is there a penetration expert on the forum?

[Justme23]

lol GreenBean

[GreenBean]

I so feel your pain,Justme. You got caught in a sorry situation.
Leave the shill account well alone. Never put that item on ebay again. And try never to do business with a friend again: it can break friendship. ebay ain't worth the damage to a good friendship.

Taxes are between you & Uncle Sam. I use a tax specialist for my tax. That way everything is worked out (to my advantage) Consider the same for yourself.

[Justme23]

I guess I shouldnt have to worry, or report it. $600 isnt alot, and I've probably only made $300 in profits since I bought so much of goods off out ebay lol

Justme23,

Saving the current account thinking it will facilitate making another legit account later is fallacious thinking. Forget that.

Turn your ass on the whole damned thing. Quit wasting your time trying to solve a ruined pile of garbage. You've spent hours on this problem already. How much did you get paid braining this out? Somebody give you a check in the amount of $200 for every 60 minutes of your brain? Then phuck it and move the hell on.

Make stealth. Only bend or break rules when absolutely life-critical. Pushing the limits trying to squeeze one extra penny is a waste of time. Trying to save anything that got ruined is a waste of time. Connecting to your friends or any of your other accounts is fatal.

Lessons learned. Now, stop wasting your time. Accept the answers you've been given - instead of thinking like a crackhead and believing you might still figure out a way to cheat your way back into good graces. You are now at the point of wasting the time of nice people who already evaluated your statements as you asked.

Do yourself (and us) a favor: Accept reality. You screwed up. It's not worth fixing. You've already wasted 19.32 times more effort than this deserves. Perpetuating what has already failed is a futile and counterproductive course of action. It is time to give this one up. Take notes, study it, and consider the experience to be educational. You just paid for a class in how cheating the system in this manner only ends up with you cheating yourself in the end.

Really, if your original intent had worked, how much more money could you have gained? If your total time watching and shill bidding was 1 hour, then it's only cost effective if the price were driven up by $200 bucks. If you spent all night and hypothetically jacked the price by $25, that means you only place your own value at about $2/hr. Flipping french fries and grilling milkshakes pays better than that.

[Justme23]

Good point. My only concern is the tax situation. I was just wondering how do I go about that if i ditch the account since i'm not a business or anything like that, just an individual who has a self employeed job, and works at a coffee shop as well.

If you don't claim the income of $600, they won't know about it. The law states that you are only required to file the income if it exceeds $599.99, and it would be up to you to point that out. PP doesn't report that at the present time.

Do us a favor, and use the above as a guideline and example. Do NOT report back to us that you had $701.28 and ask our advice. For tax questions, you should trust the advice of your own paid accountant, not a faceless person from the internet.

[Justme23]

Thanks for all the help. Really helped me out with everything.

[GreenBean]

^^^ebay advice is within our parameters. tax is for your accountant & Uncle Sam. Good Luck,Justme23. It's been an interesting thread

[stealth]

Originally Posted by inverser

IMHO, No reserve listings, FTW!

No auctions, either. Just "Buy It Now" listings. Brings all the $$$, IMHO.

[Lyda]

Your best bet is to relist the item, pay the fees Ebay will charge and stop shill bidding.

[inverser]

Originally Posted by stealth

No auctions, either. Just "Buy It Now" listings. Brings all the $$$, IMHO.

I knew someone would bring this up and you're absolutely right as well. I think it really depends on the product. I sell low volume, high dollar items.

That being said, I think it's important to note that with auction listings comes the potential to make bigger sales and increase profit margins. Over a period of time, even a few dollars extra per sale (but I'm talking about hundreds of dollars extra) really adds up and is great for your bottom line.

I haven't implemented it yet, but I'm gonna use several stealth account to list BINs of my items at high prices to create "market value" for my items and thereby creating value, and in the Buyer's minds, a greater "potential for savings" in my auction listings.